Scientists Discover Cell phones do “Something” to Your Brain

Every few months a new study comes out that makes the whole cell phone to cancer research even more muddled. The latest study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and has a brilliant conclusion. They found that cell phones do something to the brain and increase activity by about 7 percent in the areas closer to the antenna in the 47 test subjects after 50 minutes of use. They did the test with the phones in both off and on (muted) to test what would happen with a PET scan.

So kind of have some research to point that cell phones cause your brain to be more active. One of our readers, DavidB, had a funny take on this. For all we know the cell phones were causing the users to develop super powers in the area of your brain around the phone. Now if they only checked the participants telekinetic and ESP powers right after each test… Even the researchers admit that the fact that the brain is sensitive to the magnetic impulses from your cell phone does not mean it is harmful or causes cancer. Even they admit it could turn out to even have therapeutic effects like a previous study found.

All kidding aside the thing that really drives me nuts about all these studies is that they all come up inconclusive or contradictory. Even after 20+ years of research we still have no idea if there is any causal connection between cell phones and cancer and we are still looking. I really just hope we can put this case to bed in the next year or two so we no longer have people avoiding their cell phones “just to be safe” if there is no harm to it.

If you are interested in the topic check out Cancer.Gov for some great Q&A on the correlating research between cell phones and cancer or lack thereof.

Here’s another study to consider. I take all of these studies lightly as as soon as there is a study confirming one thing, there is another one that says the exact opposite.

In an article by Jon Hamilton of NPR, he talks about a study done regarding brain activity and cell phone usage. It was found that while cell phone activity can affect the metabolism of a person’s brain, but this affect has nothing to do with cancer.

Its an interesting read. I agree that we should be constantly monitoring the effects of technology. There are some who fear that 20-30 years from now, we will all be suffering the terrible effects of cell phone usage. Who knows? Maybe we will. Others have a more light-hearted attitude and dismiss these fears as paranoia while wondering if we’ll need shots of insulin to compensate for cell phone usage.

About a year ago I’d read an article about how a study found that placing magnets above a person’s right ear changed the way they filter things morally. It made me wonder about holding a cell phone up to my ear, or using a bluetooth device or any number of other devices that put magnetic fields near the ear.

I don’t have the link to the original article I saw, but here’s a couple ones about it (one of which links to the original published findings)…

That magnet-morals study sounds totally insane, but after reading more about it, it sounds like they knew what they were doing. I assume scientists from MIT and Harvard University have a good idea of scientific methods.
Pretty crazy stuff.

That’s the thing with science and technology. What used to seem like magic can be totally normal and explained by scientific and technological advancement.

As for the studies, I’m pretty sure there are many being done about the effect of cell phones on humans. The problem is, I don’t think there has been enough time to see any significant results.

So I’ve been using cell phones since BEFORE the “bag phone” days, back when having a mobile phone meant spending a couple hundred at a custom install shop to have a unit “installed” in your car. And you had to drill a hole in the roof or fender or trunk to install a 3 foot long antenna to get a signal.

So the fact that my “spidey sense” was tingling when I read this is probably unrelated. . . .

Wow, now here’s an early adopter! I remember seeing those old car phones. The unit was like a huge briefcase and the phone was literally the size of a brick. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have super powers by now. 🙂